The lucky meeting
by Trance-Gemmy
Summary: BA fic- before Andromeda- how Beka, Rev and Harper met Trance also how they meet Gerentex...
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"Vexpack, Were gonna miss ya buddy" Harper said. A tear rolled down his cheek as he claspped the candle in both hands, and trying carefully not to extinguish the flame, handed it over to Beka.

"You were a great ES officer Vex" Beka said with a sigh, looking up at the ceiling "And a great loss to us all". Beka handed the candle over to RevBem, Who closed his eyes and said a prayer in his native langauge, and then all 3 blew the candle out. It was a cold day above the Maru, the three freinds had been pretty upset since the day that Vexpack died. Harper, who was paticuly close to the former Enviromental Systems officer was most affected by his death. After a few minutes of scilence, harper broke the trend.

"Hey boss" he said to beka "You know what this means dont ya... the death of Vexpack i mean.." Beka sighed.

"What Seamus?" she said.

"I hate to say it, err boss, but we need a new ES officer. I mean, somebody to look after our enviromental systems, our artificial gravitiy and whatnot" he replied.

"Yeah" Beka sighed "Your right. But nobody could replace Vex"

"Well somebodys going to have too" harper said "And im hoping its a girl"  
"Why am i not surprised?" Beka laughed.

"A girl who... lets say, keeps herself in shape. And preferibly she would be about, 5 foot 6... and about my age" Harper said, his face lighting up. Beka and Rev smirked as harper day-dreamed of his perfect es officer. But he was soon brought back to reality by the sound of the maru's internal computer systems making an "Incoming Missile" announcement over the ships inter-com. Beka, Rev and Harper paniced.

"What? Who the hell is firing at us?" Beka cried, as she stumbled over and ran towards the pilots seat.

"I have no clue" Revbem replied "Who did we irritate this time?"

"I dunno but whoever they are they're pretty pissed off!" Harper cried as he looked at the maru's sensor screen "Those missiles are mark 3 kenetic warheads. Brace yourselves people, this is gonna hurt!"

The missile homed in and smashed into the side of the Maru, sending her tumbling out of controll. Rev held on tightly, as harper rolled onto the floor due to the sheer earthquake that was the missile impact. Beka clambered back up onto the pilots seat puffing and panting, squinting as sparks from the cockpit splashed down onto her skin.

"Harper? Turn of the godam autopilot!" Beka cried. Harper fiddeled around with a few switches untill beka had controll of the Maru, she brung the ship around untill the attacking craft was in view. Harper came running over to the front screen of the Maru and took a closer look at the attacking spaceship.

"Ogami" Harper cried "What the hell are they firing at us for..." the Maru was hit by another missile barrage. "Dam it, We lost our slipstream drive!" Harper shouted over the sounds of hissing pipes, sparks and fire, as he was thrown 20 feet into the air.

"Ive lost controll of the ship!" Beka cried. The Maru was spinning out of controll, heading down towards the atmosphear of a near-by planet. The attacking ogami ship shot of into slipsteam.

"May the devine protect us!" Rev cried as the ship spun out of controll. Harper threw his arms around Beka and screamed in fear.

"At this speed were gonna burn up in that planets atmoshpear!" Beka cried. Harper quickly ran over to his engerneering post and plugged his data port into the marus controll array.

"Harper what the hell are you doing?" Beka cried as they neared the atmoshear of the planet.  
"Hang in there boss, Im just attempting somthing crazy" Harper replied. After a huge creaking sound, a ear-popping explosion and one hell of a shake up, Beka felt the maru starting to slow down.

"Harper? What did you do?" She cried. Harper stood up in exitment, feeling very proud of himself.

"I only saved our godam lives!" he cried "Mix a little protons with our AP tanks and you get an instant boost of energy from underneath the ship. Think of it as errr a flaming cusion!"

"Harper you mad scientist, Nice job!" Beka said. Rev thanked the devine as the Maru came crashing through the clouds and accelerated down towards the planets sandy surface.

"Brace for impact!" Beka cried "_THIS_ is gonna hurt!".

Beka slowly opened her eyes. Her blury vision tried to focus on what was left of her ship. Her first thought was "find harper and rev", but when she had finally focused her eyes she noticed that rev was infact lying a few meters in front of her. He wasent moving. She dragged herself up from the floor and elevated herself into a seating position. The maru was a complete mess, with sparks ejecting all over her back as she did so. Pipes and electronics were hanging down from the ceiling, and every light was either of or flickering with damage.

" I think we crashed" Beka said sarcasticly to herself as she grasped her painfull head and crawled over to a very still rev.

"Hes been unconsious for hours" Harper said as he entered the cockpit area "And so have you, untill now, welcome back boss" he finished as he handed beka a sparky cola.

"I take it revs alive?" she groaned at harper.

"Vital signs seem pretty normal... for a maggog anyway" he joked "He should come around in a couple of hours". Beka smiled at him.

"We made it" she said.

"Miracle innit boss" Harper replied "Of course, it was me and my genies who stopped us from splatting like a bug upon entering this planets atmosphear, thankyou-yourwelcome" he took a bow.

"Damage report?" Beka said to harper, who approached her with a flexi. He bagan pointing at the techinal data on the flexi that reperesented the marus damaged systems.

"You see" he said as he pointed "We lost all controll over the key systems, here, here and ... here" Beka sighed. "And thats not the worst part" He continued "We lost the slipstream drive, we wont be leaving this system anytime soon. Luckily however" harper said rasing his hand "we still have standard engines, and no Anti-Proton's leaked out on impact". Beka looked annoyed, they were stranded.Then she noticed that there was a pile of empty cans on the floor, which made her even more annoyed.

"Harper? For all you know this planet is deprived of life, we could be stranded here for weeks, even months, we need to try to make use of what little food and drink we have... not use it all up in one god dam day. Sometimes i wonder about you..." Beka said. Harper thought about it for a second.

"Deprived of life? Oh no, theres life here, it may be pretty unitellegent life, but its life" Harper said with a smile.

"What?" Beka replied "Did you go outside?"

"Hell yeah, theres a near-by merchants town here. Loser city. Home of the illegal traders and land of the flash addicts. Like i said, theres is life here, if you can call it life... but then what do you expect? This is a desert planet in the outer-cluseter" harper said jokingly, Beka sighed.

"At least were not lightyears from any kind of civilization" she said.  
"And the best part is, that merchant town sells engine parts, i ... err ... checked it out before you woke up." Harper replied with a smile. Beka let out a sigh of releif.

"Looks like we wont be trapped on this rock for as long as i first expected" she said. Beka went for a lie down and left harper to begin making repairs to the marus electronic systems and engines.

When beka awoke, she checked her clock. She had only been asleep a couple of hours, and she pulled herself out of bed. She still had one hell of a headache after the crash-landing, her head felt like a starship had rode through her neural-network like the strings of slip-stream. The first thing she noticed as she climbed out of the Marus sleeping quater was that RevBem was no longer unconcious on the floor, and upon checking the engine room she found him with his hands in an electronic system.

"Hey Rev, Glad to see your ok" Beka said smiling at the hairy maggog. He looked at her

"Well, i have a rather bad headache, and i appeared to have twisted my ankle on impact". Beka noticed that rev was using harpers nanowelder to sether some electronic wires together from a port that connected to the Marus controll systems.

"I dident know you were a dab-hand with electronics Rev" Beka smiled.

"Well... I am not... Young master harper has kindly provided me with this electronic flexi, showing me step-by-step what to do, a kind of tutorial if you will." Revbem replied.

"Let me guess, so he can go and sit on his ass in the local bar?" Beka replied. The lovable maggog nodded his head. Beka knew where he was, he was properly drunk and slobbering over some girl .

Beka scanned the tatty planet with her binocs, there were a lot of bars and casinos, and a large market with lots of crammed stalls in. The place was run down, people walking by were either drunk or wearing sunglasses to cover up that they were on flash. Not that the local police would care. Beka made her way towards the scummy little town, and walked in to the bar that had a neon'HOT, HOT, HOT!' sign outside, lightened in red, she knew Harper would either be in that Bar, or the one that had 'LADYS NIGHT!'outside in a green flashing lights.

As soon as she walked in, a lot of heads turned to her, their were a lot of people inside, there was even a drunken perseid. Beka noticed Harper instantly by the fact that he was the only human in the whole bar, and he wasn't wearing sunglasses . She was about to walk within the crowds to reach him when a man approached her, he looked as if he had been dragged through 10 bushes backwards and old enough to be her father.

"Hey Baby! What you up to tonight?" The man sounded drunk and miserable, Beka cringed at the thought of an old bloke coming onto her.

"Well.. I whatever ill be doing it wont be with you!" She said in a disgusted tone and walked away, leaving the man to go try and flirt with another girl.

She stumbled through the crowds towards Harper, as she finally reached him she pulled up a small brown and black stool.

"Hey Boss." Harper mumbled to Beka.

"Hey Kid. "Beka smiled to her engineer. Harper sighed deeply and banged his fist on the bar table he was leaning on.

"Ok, what is it this time?"

"Her name was Catherine, she was a beauty, but then Mr. Tall, dark 'n' handsome comes along and steals her, I mean, come on! She was practically mine, but 'oh-no' just leave poor old Harper here, he wont mind, he's just a freaking human!"

"Don't worry Harper, you'll get someone one day, everyone does sometime in life…BUT not me" Beka quickly added after one look from Harper.

Harper was miserable for the return journey to the Maru, moaning about how he wished he could go on a date without it going wrong and blabbing on about all the woman he had met had betrayed him. But Beka was not listening. to hHarper's drivelling made as much sense as a dog barking to ears, as her mind was far to occupied with getting of this rock and finding a new ES officer.

"…So then she goes 'Sorry Seamus, I have to go to now, don't worry, I had a lovely time', then I see her walking away with a another bloke! I mean, I might as well be a monkey, they attract way more ladies, I mean, at least they even get there photos took!. Boss, Boss, BEKA! You listening?" Harper waved a hand in Beka's face.

"Huh…oh, ya, monkeys, there cute, yeah.." Beka snapped out of her trance and came back to the real universe.

"I take that as a no." Harper mumbled sarcastically

"Harper?" Beka asked, He nodded his head to signify a yes.

"Would ya shut up?" She snapped and walked on ahead, towards her ship.

"What I do……?"He frowned and followed her onto the Maru.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Harper! Its Monday,7 am, get your butt outa bed!" Beka shouted through the ship, waking Harper up.

"Just 5 more minutes mum!" Harper moaned and grumbled something about it being to early for a freaking genius to work.

"No, NOW!" Beka shouted and Harper gave a small scream as he fell off the hammock and onto the hard wooden floor.

"Im awake! IM AWAKE!" He shouted back and forced himself to his feet.

"Good. Now, its Monday morning, what does that mean?" The captain smiled to the engineer. Harper rolled his eyes and gave another groan.

"That's right! Now off we go, to the Market, Bye-bye!"

"Why wake me up and make me bang my head on the floor- that really did hurt ya know- when you could have gone your self!"

"I don't even know what the friggin thing looks like.."

"What about Rev?"

"Hes coming with me!"

"And where are you going?"

"To the bar, in search off a new ES officer!"Beka smirked and walked towards a mug on the side, she filled the silver cup up with water.

"So, in other words, your goanna sit on you ass all day whiles poor old human Harper works his butt off?"

"That pretty much sums it up. Yup." Beka smirked again and walked of the Maru, Harper looked confused as he turned to Rev.

"Why do I work for her again…" He asked the maggog... "Don't even answer that!" With that, the Rev walked off the ship giving a small shrug. Harper walked into his room to get changed.

Harper was searching around the tightly crammed market, there were hundreds of people from all different races ranging from neizchien's to species Harper had never even new existed. As he made his way through the crowds, he kept a sharp eye out for any Market stall selling used engine parts. He was just passing a stall selling make-over nanno-bots when somebody caught his eye. A young girl, who looked about his age. She was skipping around just a few metres away from him. She had bright purple skin that made her look like a giant walking lolipop. Harper did not know what race she was, as he had never seen a species like hers before. Her hair had a golden tone to it, but she had it pinned up in a clip, with a few strands coming around her face, she also had about 4 coloured strands mixed in with the blonde hair. She wore bright blue clothes that really brought out the purple tone in her skin. Harper walked up behind her and in the usual Harper fashion, he started to look at her behind, noticing straight away, that she had a tail. 'Core... That would be a great tool for the bedroom…' He thought to himself. He was about to approach her and attempt to flirt with the mysterious girl, but he suddenly thought, 'There's no way ive got a chance with her…she's…just too…pretty.' He slowly looked up to above her hips to see the girl looking at him, to his surprise, she was smiling at him. He quickly turned around in embarrassment and continued to search for the exotic mattelense he was looking for, without looking back.

Harper was so in-tranced with the girl he had just saw that he almost completely forgot about the stall he was looking for and walked straight past a engineering stall, which clearly sold the part he was looking for. Luckily after he passed it he noticed and walked back, that morning he had been practicing his haggling skills so he could maybe have a chance of a cheap deal.

As Harper approached, he notice the person working at the stall wasn't a person…but not a guy…or a girl…but a bug .…a green slimy slug…with a large hump in its neck. He looked pretty vile and put Harper off trying to haggle…for good. He carried on walking to the stall, when he reached it, he started to look for the part he had been searching for the entire morning.

"Hey…uhh…buddy …Got any exotic mattelenses?"

"Yes young sir, can Interest you in one?" As the large bug spoke, Harper could see the hump in his neck inflating and deflating as each syllable came out.

"And I thought maggog had it bad.." Harper mumbled…looking away from the bug so it wouldn't hear, Harper turned his attention back to the bug.

"What the cheapest one you got?"

"That would be 800 thrones young sir."

"What can I get for 1000 thrones?"

"Can I interest you in the mark 3?"

"Hmm…hey…I aint falling for that one pal! That model was mass produced and badly made!"

"You know your engine parts young sir… Ok then how about the GH21-DF Mk 4?"

"For 1000? Ill take it"

"1000 it is"

"800?"

"900"

"Deal" Harper finally said, Harper reached out to shake hands with the bug, he saw the slimy tentacle which belonged to the green slug and immediately took his hand away.

"On second thoughts…ill just…take the…lense and…Ya know… Bye!" He quickly hurried away with the exotic matter lense clutched to his chest.

"They always do that.." The green slug sighed and carried on working..

"Hey Boss, I got the exotic mattelense, it was a GH21-DF Mk 4 and 100 thrones.." Harper spoke over his headpiece-intercom to Beka.

"I don't know what that is, but it sounds good, anything but a mark 3." Was Beka's reply

"Any luck in finding a ES officer?"

"Nope, non at all…meet me back on the Maru later."

"Ok boss, see ya." Harper took his head piece off and continued to walk along, squeezing through the crowds of people in the market to try and find an exit. Harper had noticed that some of the people he had seen the night before were either still on flash or drunk. He walked straight past the bar Beka was in and went into the casino, inside it was slightly dull and tables were scattered around in various places and only a couple of people playing cards or gambling. There were signs of various stands up comedy's, some of theme very strange like the stand-up neizchien's.

"Something's should just be left unsaid." He mumbled after reading it and making his way over to the bar. Harper was just about to order his drink when he heard a couple of people cheer behind him. He turned around to see what was going on, only to find the same purple girl he had met earlier, reaching out into the middle of a poker table and bringing in a LOT of thrones. She hadn't changed her hair, but her cloths were different. Now she wore the same pair of boots with a pair of blue shorts and a yellow and red top, showing her belly.The young purple girl collected her money and looked up to see Harper looking at her again, she gave him a small smile before standing up from the green table she had been leaning over. She slowly made her way between a few people towards Harper, when she reached him, she pulled a stool up and sat on it next to him. Harper couldent belive his luck.

"Hi there" The young girl said to harper with a smile. He smiled back, while he placed the exotic matter lens he was inspecting down underneath his stool. "So" she continued as he emerged from beneath the stool "I couldent help notice you staring at me back there". Harper rubbed the back of his neck.

"Well... Err.. Its just... your so beautifull, i couldent help but look at you. You must get it all the time!" Harper replied with a cheeky smile. The girl held out her hand.

"Names Trance" she said. Harper knealt down and kissed her on the hand, telling her his name. She just laughed at him "Your very sweet" she said. Harper smiled back.

"So, do you live here? On this planet i mean" Harper asked as soon as he had sat back on his stool. She looked at the floor.

"Well, I dont really have a home. Im more of a... traveller. You wont believe the number of planets that ive been to in my time" she replied. Harper nodded.

"I know how you feel, Ive seen quite a few planets too. Ever since i left earth, i aint stayed in one place for longer than a few weeks" he said. Trance laughed and then noticed his rash.  
"Ouch that looks painfull" she said. At first harper dident realise what she meant, but after pointing to her neck, he replied.

"Well i kinda got used to it. And no, I dont have a clue what it is. I just hope it goes away soon because its itchy as hell... but lets not talk about me lets talk about you... theres a lot to talk about! Such as how pretty you are" Harper was nodding his head slowly while smiling. Trance quickly changed the subject.

"Whats that?" She asked pointing at the exotic matter lense underneath his stool. This was it, his chance to really impress her.

"This my purple freind, is a GH21-DF Mk 4 exotic matter lense..." harper started. He went on to explain exactly how it worked and began with the techno babble about AP reactions and whatnot. After about 5 minutes of trance pretending she was interested in what he was blabbing on about, she quickly tried to shut him up.

"Can i take a closer look at it?" she asked. Harper thought about how harmless she looked, and then handed over to her with a "sure". Trance took the lense out of his hand and proceeded to falsely examine it. But before harper could say another word, she was running out of the bar with the lense in her hand. Harper couldent belive it, and quickly began to pursue her. He darted out of the bar and chased her out onto the market, but amidst all of the people the purple menace had disapeared from view. Harper gave up right there. He knew there was no way he was going to find her now she had disappeared into the endless waves of people. Instead he just stood still feeling betrayed.

"I knew she was too good to be true" he sighed to himself, and with that he prepared himself for the verbal wallaping that he was going to recieve from Beka upon her hearing that they were stranded. With no money, and no slipstream drive, they weren't going anywhere anytime soon.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"WHAT!" Beka cried. A livid expression swept across her face. Harper held out his hands in front of him as he backed against the marus wall, he knew it was a good idea to keep his distance while beka exploded.

"How harper?" she said with gritted teeth "How the hell did you let somebody get away with my lense?" Beka asked. She was strolling around the Marus cockpit, letting out random growls of anger.

"I dunno... She..." Harper replied, but was quickly interupted by Beka.

"SHE!" beka cried "Let me guess, Was she pretty? Did she have a great body? Darn it seamus, its the oldest trick in the god dam book. Use your pretty face to win somebody over and then mug them. Heck, Even ive done it before!"

"Yeah but this girl... She seemed so sweet, so inocent" Harper replied.

"Hello? Beka to Harper, Come in Harper" beka replied "This is a backwater rock in the outer cluster, there is no such thing as sweet or inocence here! Everybody makes a living by cheating, double crossing each other and playing each other for fools!"

"Im sorry boss" Harper said looking at the floor. Beka took a deep breath and took a seat. She calmly continued.

"So then, how do you surpose we get out of here? We have less than 200 thrones and no slip-stream drive" she said softly. Harper thought about it for a second.

"We could just fly outa here using standard engines, and fly without slipstream to the nearest spaceport" harper replied. Beka gave him a sarcastic look.

"Harper, Thats a fantastic idea! Well done!" she replied. Her face turned from a smile to an irritated expression "Only one god dam set back... It would take months, No, years to get outa this system on normal engines. Face it harper, you messed up big time". Harper was fiddiling around with his nanowelder, spinning it in between his fingers. Beka turned to him with an evil smile. He could feel her eyes burning him, and he knew he was not going to like what she about to say.

"So then seamus, since us being stuck here is all your fault, i think its only fair that your the one who tries to find that girl. I dont care if it takes a lifetime, your going to find her and get us back our goddam slipstream drive. But you better find her quickly, because your not having any of what little money we have left untill you do. No money, No food. Comprendai?" Beka said. Harper felt his stomach rumbling, then quickly jumped from the seat and ran towards the maru door. Beka laughed at him as he ran off to find the purple theif. She turned to see the door to the sleeping area hiss open, as rev entered the marus cockpit. He went and took a seat next to beka.

"I think, Beka" Rev started "that now would be a great time to pray to the devine. I find that a little faith usually helps me through a situation such as this". The hairy reverand patted her on the shoulder.

"Rev, there's no point in me sitting around here on my ass all day, I might as well use up some of the time we have. So im goanna go try and recruit a new ES officer, im sure there's plenty of people looking for work on this pathetic excuse for a planet." Beka sighed deeply,

"Good luck Beka, may the divine lead you on the path you wish to take." Rev answer,

"Im just going to find a new ES officer, or trying to, no need for any umm…paths, but. err…thanks." Beka stepped of the ship onto the sandy ground, Rev went back into his room and continued to pray. Beka was just shutting the Marus bay door when a tall neizchien came walking towards her. His shirt was ripped in places, he wore trousers which looked 3 sizes to small and he was very scruffy and unshaven. He was as ugly as can be, and looked as If he had not had a wash in years.

"Can i…err…help you?" Beka asked, inspecting the tatted cloths worn by the large neizchien.

"Don't act all. Cute with me lady. This land belongs to Plarcan ." The neizchien grunted out,

"P'larcan?" she said

"He's Owner of this here land, and thats all you need to know"

"Erm… Ok?"

"You can either pay the parking fee or move this rust bucket" the neizchien said pointing at the Maru "Or im sure we could come to some sort of agreement, if you were to do something for me if you know what I mean" he said with a toothy smile, showing of his mouldy black teeth. Beka almost puked.

"No thanks, Ill just err… move my ship"

"Well babe, if you ever want some action you know where to find me" he said, turning and walking away.

"No thanks" Beka said under her breath. She climbed back into the Maru,

"You were quick. Any luck?" Rev questioned, Beka shook her head as she made her way to the piloting seat.

"We gotta move the ship, some neizchien fella wanted me to."

"Never argue with a neizchien, especially in a place like this." Rev advised the pilot.

"Thanks Rev, but I figured that out on my self, no help from the divine though."

"Well, I hope your luck increases as time goes by."

"So do I." Beka took the Maru up and flew to a spot which was nearer to the Market place. She landed lazily, not even checking if any people were next to where she was landing, all she cared about now was getting a new Environmental Systems officer, and getting out of this hell hole of a system.

Harper was randomly babbeling on to himself about Trance and how she had got him into the mess he was now in. He was walking through the crowded marketplace, keeping a sharp eye out for anything purple or with a tail. He looked at every person passing to see if he could spot the purple minx, but with little luck. People from all races passed by in every direction, hurrying around and pushing through each other. After a few minutes the many races of people passing by merged into one big blury mess in harpers mind, untill he could no longer tell the difference between a human and a faan. Then, at the corner of his eye, he noticed a girl. She had purple skin. Harper dashed up behind the girl, and patted her on the back.

"So there you are you purple whore!" he said angrily. The girl turned around, and to harpers surprise it wasent trance but an ugly looking alien with slimy skin. "Ah, i thought you... were somebody err else... i gotta go" harper finished. He quickly turned and walked away, feeling more than a little embarresed. He continued to stroll around the marketplace in search of, but with no luck. He walked up to a few people asking them if they had seen a girl, purple skin, about yay heigh, but due to the nature of the planet he was on, nobody seemed to care and most just ignored him or said they would only give him information for money. After a few hours, he decided it was time to take a rest from purple-girl searching, and slumped back onto one of the public benches located at the marketplaces center. He looked up into the sky, and noticed that the sun was just started to set. A golden haze filled the air, and the planet was begining to darken. Harper looked around at the market owners as they began to shut-up-shop, and watched as the hoards of people began leave the marketplace. Pretty soon, harper was left on his own with only the stars and the echoing sounds of nightclubs to keep him company, as the once thriving buisness place emptied for the night.

By this time, Beka had been sitting in the crowded bar for about 3 hours. She was on her 4th gyn and tonic, and was still on the lookout for potentiol E.S officers. The bar was busy, with races of every kind amidst the punters. Beka looked around at the various goings-on, from the flash deals to the illegal gambling. She thought about the fact that they could not have stumbled upon a more loser-filled planet if they had tried, which brought a smile to her face. She took a sip of her G and T, and then requested a re-fill from the persciad barman.

"Hey" a voice from beside her started. She turned around to see a young human, about her age, with blonde spiky hair and blue eyes. He was smiling at beka, who smiled back.

"You look pretty down" the man continued.

"Yeah, well, Ive had a long day" beka replied. The man ordered himself a drink and then turned his attention back to Beka.

"So... Is there anything i can do to cheer you up a little?" he said. Beka laughed.

"No, Not unless you know anything about being an E.S officer" she replied. A thoutfull expression fell across the mans face.

"So, Your in search of a new E.S officer, eh?" he said looking at his now empty glass.

"Yea i am... Why? Do you know somebody who might be interested in the position?" Beka said, her face begging to light up. The guy laughed.

"Well it just so happens, that i have a bit of experience in that area of work myself" he replied. Beka's recent bad luck seemed to have finally changed.

"Names Hale" the man said holding out his hand for a shake. Beka proceeded to tell him her name, and they went on to chat about the Maru, the rest of bekas crew and other job related things. After about 20 minutes, Hale turned to Beka.

"Well, Miss valentine" he said "It just so happens, that i currently dont have a job and am looking for work"

"Are you offering to work for me?" Beka said with a smile.

"Are you offering to give me a job?" Hale contiuned, taking a big mouthfull of his beer.

"Yeah, Yes i am" Beka said smiling.

"Then i guess im your new E.S officer... Boss" The man replied.

"Then i guess you are" Beka replied "What experience have you had working with enviromental systems in the past?" She said. That second, a blank, confused expression swept across Hales face.

"Ummm" Beka asked "Was it somthing i said?" Hale thought for a few seconds.

"No, No..." he said "its just... theres been a cock-up on my behalf"

"Err, Ok" A confused Beka replied.

"By E.S officer, i thought you meant Electronic Systems, not Enviromental Systems" he said. Beka sighed in anoyment. Hale looked kind of guilty. "Look beks, Im sorry" hale continued "I would love to work for you and all but i know nothing about oxygen, plants or artificial gravity... In other words i would make a crap Enviromental Systems operator. Sorry" Hale stood up and left beka sitting there, thinking about how unlucky she had been in recent times.

"What i need is a good luck charm" She sighed to herself. That second, she was tapped on the back. Upon turning around she saw a young, purple skinned girl standing there with her hands behind her back, looking up at Beka smiling. The first thing that Beka noticed is that the girl had a tail.

"Excuse me miss" the young purple girl started "I could'nt help but over-hear that you need somebody who knows about plants. I know a lot about plants, they are a big interest of mine" Beka raised an eyebrow.

"Really? Take a seat" She replied.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Harper approached the Maru's landing site, only to find that it was no longer there. He couldent belive it.

"Oh no... she left me... she..." He said to himself. He dropped to the floor and began to cry. As he sobbed helplessly on the sandy ground, his communicater began to bleep. He answerd his incoming call and sobbed into the inter-com.

"Hello, Whoever you are please dont make my life anymore difficult than it allready is..."

"What harper?" Beka replied over the communications link. Harpers sad face turned to one of joy as a confused Beka tried to work out why he was crying.

"Beka!" Harper cried. "Beka! I thought you had left me"

"Umm..." Beka said in confusment, "Ohhh, the maru. I had to move it, apparently i was on some guys private land"

"Oh... I knew that!" Harper lied, quickly wiping his tears away and standing up of the floor.

"Err, Ok harper" Beka replied "Oh, i was calling to tell you to get over here"

"Why? Are you finally gonna let me have some food? Im starvin!"

"Haha, No, You aint getting any food untill you find that lense. I need you to come here to meet our new E.S officer"

"What? You found somebody?"

"Yep, And i think you would like her"

"Her?" Harper said, his face lighting up.

"Yeah, Get your but over here Harp, Beka out" Beka finished, cutting the comunications link. Harper began to make his way towards the bar, as he mumbled to himself about how hungry he was and how evil Beka was for not letting him have any food.

Trance smiled at Beka, she was talking about what sort of plants she would have to look after and what sort of things were to be done in her upcoming job.

"What about payment?" Trance asked Beka's face changed from a smile to a frown. She had forgotten all about the fact that she had no cash, after spending it all on the lenses, which had been stolen.

"Well…you see…" She started nervously.

Harper walked in the bar and searched through the people who were either slumping over after drinking or trying to chat some one up. Then he spotted Beka, sitting next to a. purple girl, Harpers eyes widened, it was the

"THEIF, BEKA IT THE THEIF!" He shouted to her,

Beka sho her head up to Harper and looked slightly annoyed,

"Theif, who, Harper don't mess with me…ok."

"I'm not, that's her Beka, it the thief, the purple…thing." Harper wasn't sure what Trance was, he pulled his gun and aimed it at Trances collar bone.

"Harper don't be ridiculous, I mean this is our new ES officer"

"I'm not, that's her, she stole the lenses."

"No…I didn't…what's a lenses?" Trance put the most innocent look on ever.

"Harper, look at her…she's too…innocent…" Beka pointed out as Trance looked at her.

"That's what I though…until she stabbed me in the back."

"Why would she steal something from us, then come and work for us?"

"Because shes…ummm…stupid?" He tried his best to convince Beka that Trance was the thief.  
"No, I think the only stupid person in here…is you Harper."

"What, Beka believe me! It was her, honest!"

"It could have been some one else who looks like her…" Beka tried to say before being interrupted by Harper,

"Oh yeah, the tails a dead give away…"

"How do you know?" Trance said with a mysterious smile. Harper didn't really know what to say after that, Beka just rolled her eyes.

"Come on Trance…lets get going, ill show you around the Maru." Beka led Trance out of

the bar towards the small ship.

"YOU'LL REGRET THIS!" Harper shouted after Beka, as he walked out of the bar, he sighed.

"Wait a minute…there's a thief on board….and my rooms on board…those two things don't mix.." Harper ran after his boss and the thief.

Beka and Trance walked onto the Maru, Trance looked slightly alarmed as a maggog with a brown cloak on came towards Beka, she gave her a concerned look.

"Don't be alarmed, he's a wayist, he wouldn't hurt you."

Trance frowned, still feeling a bit scared.

"Beka, welcome back." Rev smiled to Beka , then turned to Trance, he looked suspiciously at her,

"Hmmm…I see you have found a new ES officer." He asked

"Yeah, how did you know?"

"Well i.." Rev was interrupted by a shouting and panting Harper running onto the ship,

"DON'T LOOK UNDER MY PILLOW!" He shouted pointing at Trance , she looked at him strangely.

"Don't ask Trance no body knows what is under there…." Beka muttered so Trance could hear.

"Ok…" she nodded.

"It is nice to meet you young one.." Rev bowed to Trance

"Ya, nice to meet you too, my names Trance, Trance Gemini." She shook hands (well Revs claws) with the maggog.

"DON'T TRUST HER REV, SHES A THEIF!" Harper screamed, making Trance and Beka jump.

"Harper, look at me…we all know your crazy, but you don't have to broad cast it to the world." Beka tilted her head and smiled, she gave a small chuckle before walking into the tiny kitchen and grabbing a beer what was stored in a cupboard above a small table.

Trance slowly made her way towards where Beka was, Rev followed. Harper stood near the door, still annoyed from what Beka had just said.

Later that night Harper was lying in his bed and looking at the ceiling, he was playing with a bouncy ball he had got form earth, bouncing it from the bed to the ceiling, catching it then starting again, that was when Beka walked in.

"Boss can I just have a word with you, please?" Harper asked

"What?"

"Beka, I swear, it was her…she did it…look at her she's a maniac!"

Beka looked through the door to see Trance, who was now occupying herself by jumping up and down, looking at the ceiling and smiling.

"Ya, wouldn't want to run into her in the dark." She said sarcastically, raising a eyebrow.

"Well…she might look.. cute there, but she might just steal the Maru and then where would you be?"

"Harper, she may be a thief…maybe, but what did you used to do?"

Harper thought and then realised what she was saying.

"I used…to….steal…"

"And why?"

"For food, cloths, to live…" Harpers memories from Earth came back to him, it had been horrible back then, he realised what Trance had been going through on the horrible planet.

"Exactly…so just do me a favour, trust her, please. Or at least think about it." Beka then left him to think about what she had said, and Harper did, he was interrupted by a young purple girl walking into the room.

"Hey…"He said, sitting up on his bed, she sat next to him and sighed.

"Look, sorry for ya know, stealing the lensey thingy, I just didn't have any food and clothes and…" she was silent… "Please, this is the only job I have got what im good at…"

"Don't worry, when I lived on Earth, I had to steal to survive and to eat, me and my cousin Brendan used to steal from markets and well anyone who we could." Harper nodded in understandment,

"Thanks, im real glad you understand…" The purple alien then stood up and smiled at Harper she walked out of the room to find Beka. It took Harper a few days to get used to Trance, but in the end he started to trust her more, and slowly become her friend.

Beka looked at the rat nosed knight sider looking at her, he had beady eyes and frizzy hair. Trance and Harper and Rev all watched carefully as the two of them looked straight at each other.

"Captain Valentine, I am to under stand that you are in search of a mattelenses, Am I right?"

"Yes you are… a thief got away with ours, what is it to you anyway Gerentex?" Beka took her time to

"Its just that, I have one, for a small favour you can have it." He smiled evilly at Beka.

"What would that favour be?" She felt dis-comforted by his rough voice,

"To help me find a ship…"

"What ship?"

"The Andromeda Ascendence.."

Harper gasped, Beka looked confused

"That's ships a legend…" She frowned at him

"I know, but legends say that the high guard ship is still out there."

"Look, if this is some stupid plan to take us to some rock, leave us there and take my ship, its not going to happen."

"Did you not hear a word I just said?"

"Oh please, like its really there!"

"Captain, you will get equal shares of the Andromeda."

"So your selling it?"

"Yes. And you and all your crew will get equal shares and a new mattelenses"

"How am I sure that your telling the truth?"

"Are you in, or not?" Gerentex looked her straight in the eyes., not bothering to answer the question before.

"Let me just talk to my crew about this, and well get back to you!" Beka narrowed her eyes before turning back to Trance, Rev and Harper. They all talked in low voices and whispers about wherever to go, or not to.

"I don't know Beka. He looks a little…cheap, don't ya think?" Harper asked his boss,

"Harper, he just came from the planet we're on, what do you expect?" Trance asked in a whisper.

"True, but come on, look at those clothes." Harper looked at Gerentex's horrible flared clothes.

"We need the money." Beka said, she hadn't been paying attention to what they had been saying, just think about what was needed, and money was one of them.

"Yeah but…"

"No, Harper we need the lenses and the money ,no doubt about it."

"Beka, I advise that you go to your needs and follow what path you like. Whatever one, I am going to be behind you all the way." Rev nodded.

"Well, I think that im going to go down the path that leads me to fortune, and a working ship."

"Bah, im right behind ya boss." Harper said,

"Trance?" All three of them turned to Trance,

"Im fine with anything you do Beka." She replied. Beka smiled before standing up and looking to Gerentex,

"Ok, but if this leads to any danger for me or any of MY crew, then you will pay, and not with money." She threatened there new employee.

"Excellent, but ill need to connect my pod to this…ship, if that's ok?" Gerentex looked around the room.  
"Fine, Fine, but remember, you touch my crew, then you are so dead."

"Great, my cargo pod is orbiting this planet."

"Okay, but first of all we need the lenses."

"Fine, ill get my men to fit it in."

"No thanks, I think ill have my engineer fit it. Pass me it." Gerentex passed the lenses to Beka.

"More work for me? Why me!" Harper asked in disappointment. With one look from Beka Harper nodded,

"Ill get right to it boss."

"I thought that's what you said." Beka smiled as Harper scurried away with the mattelenses after taking it from her.

Beka was sitting in her piloting chair, strapped in while Harper got the lenses planted into its position.

"Hey Beka." Trance stepped next her unexpected, making Beka jump,

"Oh, hey Trance, you made me jump."

"Sorry."

"Doesn't matter , don't apologise Trance."

"No, im sorry for stealing the lenses."

"WHAT!" Beka screamed leaning forwards only to be pulled back by the seat belt what strapped her in.

"I didn't have any money, or food, or drink or clothes…" Trance pleaded.

"Trance, I know its just…why didn't you….you needed money…why didn't you just come and see me? I would have gave you the job."

"I know, but oh please Beka can I still have the job?"

"Well….I don't know."

"Please Beka, this is the only job im good at and it has been for years."  
"But if you liked doing this job so much why didn't you come straight to me? And why did you steal the lenses?"

"Because, if I hadn't stolen it we wouldn't be here now would we?"

"I guess not, but so…that doesn't explain." Beka was getting slightly confused by the purple girl.

"Look, please is there anything I can do to repay you?"

"Well…" Beka searched her mind, then found a brilliant answer… money.

"You still want the job?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, I tell ya what, you can work for free."

"Yeah, that's fine, that's great, that's good just don't make me go back to the horrible, disgusting planet. I hate it there."

"Ok, but do another thing for me.."

"What's that."

"Don't tell Harper he'll rub it in that's he was right, and I hate when people say 'I told you so..'" Beka said,

"Thanks Beka…it means a lot." Trance gave Beka a thankful look.

Later that night Trance was in her room. She smiled to herself, her plan had worked.

Ok, the End, im going to write a sequel about them looking for the Andromeda, it will have the characters becoming better friends and a few other things.


End file.
